Edelweiss
by El Angel Caido
Summary: There are many things that could be said about how and why it happens. I was drunk, I was lonely, I got carried away… and the most cliché of all, it just happened.


**Edelweiss**

El Angel Caido

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

There are many things that could be said about how and why it happens. I was drunk, I was lonely, I got carried away… and the most cliché of all, it just happened. And somewhere around Mt. Olympus, Eros cringes because these days, you rarely hear the reason that his existence is there for, and it's as if he might as well not exist.

Alcohol, check. There's enough bottles of Hanjozo on the bedside table to get a whole freakin' village drunk, and almost all of them are empty. That's not a bad number for one night, considering that it takes only around forty seconds for the human tongue to learn the palatability of an alcoholic beverage.( If you're like her who easily gets drunk, in which case you will readily swallow anything that can be shoved into your mouth, it takes even less.) If the fifth Hokage could see her now, she would tell her how proud she is that her student was able to drink that much alcohol because back when they were still in Konoha she couldn't even finish three shots.

And when Tsunade finds out who she drank it with, the matron would scream.

Loneliness, check. Her Uncle Chouza once told her that the people you miss aren't the people you think of when you're alone – it's who you think of even when you're happy with a crowd. It's been almost two years and there's been many other people, but the truth is that there had been nobody quite like him, or the way he made her feel. If she could, she would actually turn back time so she could do things differently. When Temari asks her, "Do you have feelings for Shikamaru?" she would not deny it; when Sakura pleads, "But you love him and he loves you, why should you care about those stupid inter-village alliances!" she would listen; and when he… when_ Shikamaru_ looks at her right in the eye says "Tell me you love me and I won't marry Temari.", she would not hold back her tears, turn around and walk away. She might even say what he wanted to hear.

And then maybe things would turn up differently. And maybe she wouldn't be lonely.

Emotional overwhelm, check. Because a fingertip gently pressed to the lips can do more than silencing someone who speaks . It can close eyes and ease breathing too. (It's also a more sexually arousing that torrid French kisses, no matter what those Mexican soap operas say.) There's just something tenderly comforting about the way light fingers gently trace their way from pale soft cheeks to saccharine pink lips. It might just be the best way to get acquiescence, and when you have acquiescence, you can proceed with everything else.

Who said you need a grappling background to elicit a submission?

It just happened, check. She was in a bar at another country far far away, wasting the night away when he came in. She recognized him (how could she not, she spent the first thirteen years of her life chasing after him) and although she very well knew that there was a standing order from the Hokage to seize Uchiha Sasuke and bring him back to Konoha if he was ever sighted, she did not do anything but sit there because at that point neither the Hokage nor Konoha even mattered. She doesn't know how he saw her and why he went up to her, nor how they got out of the bar and into some room at some corner of this crazy world. It just happened.

It just happened. That's what we all say when we can't or don't want to explain why certain things happened. It's just seldom the truth.

And love?

Frankly, she couldn't care less if there was love or not that night. When she woke up the next morning the sheets were all messed up and clothes were strewn all over the floor and the stench of alcohol was drenching in the air and the headache – god, the headache – it was terrible. There might have been some feelings of guilt or regret (Okay, so she did at least wanted to be in love when she did it) but it was hard to tell because the feelings of soreness and nausea were all that she could recognize.

But it was okay since she was not alone and there was nobody saying "You know it's casual and we can forget all about this day, right?" There's just… him. Beside her, eyes closed and chest rising and falling as he breathed soundlessly in his sleep.

She does her best to will the nausea away and get out of bed as quietly as she could because this is the kind of headache that makes you go to the bathroom and kneel in front of the toilet bowl. Her hair falls all over her face she proceeds to throw up, (puke, if you will) last night's dinner, the taste of alcohol returning to scorn her weary senses as the retching sound of vomiting echoed mockingly all over the bathroom.

"You should've told me you were a light drinker." He says, an eyebrow slightly raised as he leaned indifferently against the wall, his arms folded nonchalantly across his chest as he watched her from the doorway.

She doesn't raise her head to look at him, but her lips curl into a faint, tired smile. "Maybe you would have known that if you stayed in Konoha a little longer."

He rolls his eyes as another wave of nausea causes her to gag once more. But he walks towards her anyway, bending down to gently gather the strands of her limp, blonde hair and hold it back for her while she vomits again. And again. And again.

"Foolish woman." He says grudgingly, wrinkling his nose at the sight and the stench of it all.

But he stays beside her anyway, and she doesn't tell him to go away.

And today, just today, nobody needs love.


End file.
